The Madison school board gets downright Dickensian!

---

Is former Ald. Bridget Maniaci running for mayor? Yes. Is current Ald. Paul Skidmore considering doing so? Yes, again. Is former police chief Noble Wray also thinking? It’s probably just a rumor. (?)

---

It was the first thing your Humble Bloggeur noted at Wednesday night’s ad hoc school board committee on EROs. Black-shirted school district security people facing the audience, arms folded, one on the left of the stage at McDaniels auditorium, the other on the right — with more in back and in the hallways. Some real beef, although unarmed.

Have to say, your aging Squire felt much safer than he did being harassed by the Freedom Inc. social justice terrorists at the previous meeting, July 18. Was also good to see in the audience about a dozen citizens who side with keeping the cops in our high schools. Thank you!

The committee did not take public comment this particular evening, which contributed to the relative comity.

Committee chairman Dean Loumos began by read a lengthy, corporation counsel-authored warning to the audience that citizens have the right to record this open meeting and that if a disruption occurred they would adjourn the meeting. Upon hearing that, your Squire considered starting a ruckus. Perhaps all Blaska need have done was raise his smart phone into the air.

Good Gawd! Adjourn sine die for all the good you have done these last 17 months!

Because these guys are STILL not done. (As Solozzo lamented to Tom Hagen: “He’s still alive! They pumped five bullets into him and he’s still alive! Well that’s bad news for me and worse for you if you don’t make that deal with Sonny.”)

Now I must confess. I do not know where this damn thing stands because this committee STILL has not made a recommendation. But it appears the liaison concept is dead.

The dog ate their homework

Which we knew going in to the MMSD (Ruth) Doyle administration building 07-25-18. Police Chief Koval and Mayor Soglin last week declared the liaison idea a dead letter. They DO own the police.

According to reporter Logan Wroge’s report in this morning’s WI State Journal, Chairman Loumos attempted to do some face saving. 

“I think what we saw today was that people did their homework and came with some thought as opposed to some people, some officials, who have commented on what we’ve been doing.”

Mr. Loumos, Chief Koval LIVES the police. He could have told you that the liaison idea was unworkable — Had You Done Your Homework! It is training 20 cops instead of four into school procedures; it is calling one of those 20 into the school in an emergency and not any of the other police on duty. Furthermore, it does nothing to satisfy the social justice warriors who see it as involving MORE COPS! 

About the liaison idea, as the minutes from the July 18 meeting record, “We have to hear from administrators and teachers.” Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot!

A classic case of over-thinking an issue

That did not stop the Loumos committee Wednesday evening from doing chest compressions on the liaison idea: hours of massaging, in real time, the dense, sans-serif text projected overhead. Turgid bureaucratic liberal-speak cluttered with buzz words out of the liberal-progressive-socialist catechism. “Mass incarceration” of black folk was taken as a given. “Restorative justice.” And, of course, “root causes.” Example:

We believe there are a number of root causes that should be addressed concurrently with the ERO contract [such as] … mass incarceration … proliferation of firearms, healthy housing, equitable economic development, health equity, mental wellness, and the residual effects of land use policy in Madison have lurked about throughout our work. We recommend some semblance of this work continue in order to address the role these areas play in the challenges we face in terms of school safety and student well-being.

Did they forget the Rohingya? “The residual effects of land use policy”? The school board should contract with the zoning department, not the police force!

Quick, create more committees! Jarndyce v Jarndyce has nothing on the Madison Board of Education!

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Unlikely the next full Board of Education meeting Monday, July 30, will consider police in schools.